Arrests as China web users call for ... 
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/20/3143681.htm
Arrests as China web users call for revolution
By China correspondent Stephen McDonell, wires
Updated 3 hours 4 minutes ago
A woman is arrested by police after internet social networks called people to join a "Jasmine Revolution" protest
Calls on the internet for China to stage its own Egypt-style revolution have led to activists being arrested and a tense stand-off in the middle of Beijing.
As many as 15 high-profile Chinese activists and human rights lawyers have been rounded up by authorities, according to their supporters.
They are reportedly being held in custody without charges.
The detentions follow calls on the internet for China to follow Egypt and Tunisia with its own "Jasmine Revolution".
The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas websites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major Chinese cities.
At the suggested time and place for protests to begin in the heart of Beijing, hundreds of police were on hand.
There was a tense stand-off as crowds of onlookers gathered as well as dozens of foreign reporters.
Scuffles broke out and at least two people were seen being taken away by police, one for cursing at the authorities and another person who was shouting: "I want food to eat".
It is unclear if they were trying to protest.
According to Internet postings, only a few demonstrators appeared in other cities, although large police contingents were seen at designated protest spots in Shanghai, Harbin, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
Chinese authorities have sought to restrict media reports on the recent political turmoil that began in Tunisia as the "Jasmine Revolution" and spread to Egypt and across the Middle East.
Unemployment and rising prices have been key factors linked to the unrest that has also spread to Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Libya.
Searches on Sunday for "Jasmine Revolution" on China's Twitter-like micro-blog Weibo produced no results, while messages on the popular Baidu search engine said that due to laws and regulations such results were unavailable.
Some Chinese Internet search pages listed "jasmine" postings but links to them were blocked.
The Chinese government has expended tremendous resources to police the Internet and block anti-government postings and other politically sensitive material with a system known as the "Great Firewall of China".
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- Re: Arrests as China web users call ... Tiki
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This is a reply to # 1,772,981Another reason that we should feel grateful that our countries, corrupt as they may be, allow so many more
freedoms to the everyday man.- Re: Arrests as China web users call ... spudlydoo
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This is a reply to # 1,773,007Tiki, there are ways of getting around the "Great Fire Wall of China", and many have been doing just that for years now. Fear of arrest/imprisonment without trial/torture and execution, prevent many Chinese from protesting on the streets, but there is a very lively online protest happening, even now.
The Chinese government has indeed spent a lot of money and effort on trying to prevent anyone accessing information, that relates to protests in other countries, or by Chinese dissidents, living in exile in other countries, but they have and will continue to fail.
Its only a matter of time, before there are sufficient numbers of people who are willing to protest on the streets, and become an overwhelming force, that the government, military and police, will not be able to contain with the use of violence, or threats of violence.
I agree that we should appreciate what freedoms we have in our own countries, but also that we should not take for granted these freedoms, and always be vigilant in guarding them.
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- Re: Arrests as China web users call ... Tiki
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- Jasmine revolution to fight on despi... spudlydoo
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This is a reply to # 1,773,274http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/jasmine-revolution-to-fight-on-des...
Jasmine revolution to fight on despite internet crackdown
Jasmine Revolution
A Chinese police officer urges people to leave a planned protest site in Shanghai, as jittery Chinese authorities staged a show of force to squelch an online call for a "Jasmine Revolution". Source: AP
THE Chinese Government, rattled by protests sweeping the Middle East, swung into action yesterday to quash online calls for a "jasmine revolution" on the streets of Beijing and 12 other cities across the country.
Although very little happened in the way of protests at the appointed hour of 2pm, the internet rallying cry had clearly upset the authorities. Chinese mobile phone operators announced "technical issues" which stopped text messages being sent en masse.
With no angry crowds or placards visible in Beijing and only a three-man scuffle breaking out in Shanghai, the authorities' tactics appear to have worked. Elsewhere, including the cities of Tianjin, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu, there were no reports of rallies. In the capital dissident protests were limited to a 25-year-old man placing a white jasmine flower outside the branch of McDonald's where the protesters were to have met. Although police efforts to detain the man, Liu Xiaobai, were hampered by crowds, he appeared shaken.
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"I'm quite scared because they took away my phone. I just put down some white flowers - what's wrong with that?" he said. "I'm just a normal citizen and I just want peace."
In Wangfujing Street, Beijing, where protesters had been urged to gather, it became difficult to separate the aggrieved from thousands of shoppers who had stopped to look at the police and foreign television cameras.
There was a strong police presence where protesters had been told to gather and more than a hundred known activists were detained before they could leave their homes.
China's well-practiced cyber-censorship machinery roared swiftly into action to quell any unrest. On Weibo, the microblogging site similar to Twitter, the Government blocked searches for the word "jasmine" and prevented the uploading of photographs taken on mobile phones.
The source of the call for a "jasmine revolution" appears to be Boxun.com, a rights advocacy website based in the US. It was closed down after being attacked by hackers. Its slogan - "we want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness!" - was not heard on the day of action.
A few hailed the day's activities as a useful dry run and suggested that protesters should meet every Sunday.
Chinese media have provided little coverage of events in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, underplaying the depth of anti-government feeling. Another strategy is to report on protests but then prevent people commenting in chatrooms and in microblogs, feared to be the biggest source of unrest.
The Times
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